The present invention is directed to a data processing system and more particularly to a local area network communication system which includes a plurality of processing devices connected to a common communication channel for transferring data between the devices.
With the advent of low cost data processing devices such as personal computers, data terminals, etc., local communication networks have been developed to handle a large number of processing devices that may be used within a local business environment. In attaching the processing devices to the common communication channel in the network, a separate tap box for each device has been utilized. As the number of processing devices are added to the network, it has been found that because of noise reflections from within the channel and generated by the number of devices attached to a single tap box, some of the devices are unable to transmit or receive data over the communications channels due to the noise environment present at their location on the channel.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an apparatus for attaching a number of processing devices to a common communication channel which eliminates any noise interference from other processing devices attached to the channel.
It is another object to this invention to provide an apparatus for attaching a number of processing devices to a common communication channel which reduces the number of tap boxes normally required thereby reducing the cost of the system.